To: Author51 who wrote (2770 ) 2/26/1998 7:05:00 PM From: flightlessbird Read Replies (2) | Respond to
John F.: Thanks. I was unaware that you could do that for VSE stocks. Seems to me pretty foolish for brokerage firms to open themselves up for their clients to short such low value stocks. The volatility on those things means someone shorting a .20 that jumps to .80 in 2 days could owe A LOT of money to the broker. Do they require a minimum amount in the account to short stocks under, say, a buck? Otherwise, it would seem to me that they would find themselves frequently calling on clients to meet severe margin calls or to force their clients to cover at an ungodly loss. Just curious. I was basing my knowledge on US OTCs and not the VSE. As you have learned, I too will never, ever, ever, ever (how many more times?) buy a VSE stock for the rest of my life no matter what story or "inside scoop" I have. For that matter, I probably will stay away from Canadian stocks generally (though I would touch a TSE if I was absolutely compelled). I toy around significantly with U.S. OTC stocks and find them infinitely more predictable than the VSE, believe it or not. I got burned bigtime on JOT but have thankfully made up for it with some savvy trading elsewhere. I'm keeping my JOT just because at this price, why bother selling. I'll just take the chance that things really are the way they should be, just with some significant delays. Nothing has affirmatively shown me otherwise. Yes, we can't get a straight answer out of JOT on many details but Owen has pulled some deals with BNTI (so they CAN do something), options were recently approved for JOT insiders at much higher prices, investors are pulling out now that simply didn't get their quick 3 month burst, and eventually the shorts will start to cover at some bottom price. Eh, why bother. Maybe this Hot Notions thing will work. I like the concept. But it is just a concept. I do believe a deal with Lotus with any signficant revenue will send this stock back to a buck. At that point, my wounds will be somewhat healed and I'll gauge whether to keep my position. Otherwise, I'll just hold and hold and hold and see what Owen and co. can do for us shareholders. Sucks bigtime but we all learn our lessons one way or another. This was a good one.
